ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I have been playing ToME2 on and off since it was released, and I still have not won. I have never won a roguelike except using wizard mode in Moria, which does not really count. Are there any guides on how to win ToME, even when using wizard mode? I have had strange things happen to me when trying. Years ago, I read some instructions, and I think I made it to Mt. Doom and dropped the ring and dropped it in the lava. I never could find Sauron and Morgoth though. I tried again recently, and there was not even a way to Mt. Doom in Mordor.

The way the map works makes things harder. It tires me out spending hours looking for places. There were roads to some places in Middle-Earth, and people to guide adventurers, and they should have an orienteering skill. I do not know if in Middle-Earth people were considered to have maps, but if they do, a quicker overland travel mode like in ADOM would be nicer.

IIRC there was a plot outline on the old wiki, but that got eaten. It's basically a mutilated mix of different Tolkien stuff.

The plot goes something like this (once your character is powerful enough):
- Climb to the top of Dol Guldor and kill the Necromancer. Find out he's Sauron. Tell Galadriel.
- Go around killing various uniques that might drop the Ring, including Sauron himself (at Angband level 99).
- Go into Mordor, then climb Mount Doom. Fight your way through the horribly nasty final level to the Great Fire. Drop the Ring into the Fire, making sure you do not get killed in the process.
- Once the Ring is destroyed, find Sauron and kill him again. (He should be there on Mount Doom.) This time he'll stay dead.
- Go into Angband again, down to level 100 this time, and duke it out with Morgoth. Go back to Lothlorien and tell Galadriel.

If you're game, Galadriel can open a portal to the Void. The plot there is as follows:
- Dive until you find the stairway to the Nether Realm.
- Enter the Nether Realm and kill the eldritch ghost-thing at the bottom. It will drop the Flame Imperishable, which you must use to create an Ultimate Item. Do so.
- Go back into the Void, use the Ultimate Item to break through Melkor's barrier. Take the down stairs.
- Fight Melkor. If you win, you can (finally) climb out of the Void. Congrats, you're an Ultimate Winner.

Actually *doing* all this is very difficult. Roguelikes in general, as I understand them, are hard to win by design; and ToME2 is one of the harder ones at high levels. Melkor in particular is stupidly powerful, e.g. it takes four castings of the Necromancy "Death" spell to kill him.

Edit: You're. Your. Learn the difference, Self.

If you have some way of getting past Sauron on the final level on Mt. Doom (Ring of Flare or Recall mage spell should work), you can optimize this a little. Change the above steps to:

• Kill all of the "guardians": Ar-Pharazon, Shelob, Watcher in the Water, Glaurung, Father of the Dragons, Feagwath, the Undead Sorcerer. (In their respective dungeons.)
• If any of them drops The One Ring, go directly to Mt. Doom. If you find Sauron, simply "jump" past him using Ring of Flare (or Recall), destroy the ring and kill him afterwards. This will kill him permanently, so you're saved a dangerous hunt for him on L99 of Angband. You can now proceed directly to killing Morgoth on L100 of Angband.
• If none of them drops The One Ring, make your way to L99 of Angband and kill Sauron (repeatedly) to obtain the ring. He has 30% chance of dropping it. Once you have the Ring, proceed as above. (Do jump over Sauron if he reappears on Mt. Doom and kill him after destroying the Ring. It'll save you another long hunt.)

It's also worth noting that Sauron will kind of go into hiding after you destroy the Ring, and barely ever show up in Angband. Better to deal with him on Mount Doom if you can.

(Really this should be considered a bug though.)

I have not had much trouble finding Sauron in Angband, but I normally play as a Sorceror so can cast Sense Monsters and level scum until he shows up.

I have won T2 somewhere around 50 times. Here are some builds for easy wins.

1) Lost Soul Death mold Sorceror, Melkor, Ironman rooms on. Level scum to find one with a checkerboard, keyhole, or other vault with guaranteed superb items. Use DM powers to lift rings- they will either be speed or artifacts. Kill a few easy monsters (maybe in a destroyed level) to get to level 3 or so and you can start picking up tomes. Knowledge will let you ID everything and Translocation will let you swap places with monsters in a checkerboard vault. A pack of trolls is a good way to get to level 20 or so. This should take about 30 minutes, or you will be dead. Pump Sorcery, Spell Power, and Magic, and put one point into Udun. Hopefully you have Nenya, Vilya, Flare, Thorin, some speed rings, a good mage staff of wizardry, and various other armor to cover the rest of your resists. A randart suit with + to hp is great and you don't care about the bad to-hit and to-damage. Once you get your kit together, use Probability Travel to get out. Sell a few excess tomes to get cash and look through the Orc Caves, Old Forest, and Land of Mountains for a potion store. Max out your stats. Buy a big pack of Summon Never-moving Pet and go to the bottom of the Paths of the Dead. Summon druj, adjust the terrain so that you can see them but they can't see you, and zap them. It is easy to get to level 40. You should have enough hp at this point to be able to use Genocide safely, so don't fight anything but uniques from now on. Kill the Necromancer and visit Galadriel. Go to Mordor 65 using the thunderlords, hop over to Mt Doom, and head down. Try to kill all the uniques you see. When you get to the bottom, recall and use the t-lords to take out dungeon guardians who might drop the ring. If not, go back to Mt Doom and kill Sauron. Go to Angband and finish up. In the Nether Realm cast Genocide immediately upon entering every level, then Vision. Use the DM blink for movement because it doesn't set off traps. Keep Regeneration going and cast Healing whenever your hp start to drop too much. Make sure that you carry an unenchanted mage staff for the Flame Imperishable. Melkor is a pain, but if there is a dungeon with permanent walls you can set up a killing field where you can zap and jump and he can't get you. I have won in less than 24 hours this way.

2) Rohan Knight Zombie Swordmaster worshiping Melkor. Curse makes the game ridiculously easy. One round and even Morgoth is essentially paralyzed. There is a trick to re-worshiping him after destroying the ring, but I don't do it. If I am going to worship him, I am going to go all the way and wear the ring.

That's all very interesting. I have also read a detailed blog website about winning, with several pages description and maybe screenshots; anyone know if that's still up?

The last one I saw when I decided to come back to the game is this one: https://lparchive.org/Troubles-of-Middle-Earth/

Lord Dimwit's advanced strategy guide is still available: https://te4.org/tome2-ldasg